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CNN Saturday Morning News

Reporter's Notebook: Bush's Stem Cell Decision

Aired August 11, 2001 - 09:34   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to focus again on stem cell research and President Bush's decision to allow some limited federal funding.

KYRA PHILLIPS, FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN ANCHOR: To answer your e-mail questions on the political and scientific implications of the president's decision, White House correspondent Kelly Wallace and medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen. Thanks to both of you for joining us in our "Reporter's Notebook" this morning.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good to be with you.

BUCKLEY: Well, let's get right to the e-mails here. I'm going to go right at Elizabeth first. This is from Ruth Grunberg, who says, "How much federal money will be available for stem cell research as a result of Bush's decision? How much private money now funds this research from groups like Parkinson's Foundation, Michael Fox Foundation, et cetera? I realize it must be hard to quantify how much private companies are spending."

Elizabeth?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You know what? Unfortunately, Ruth, I don't have an exact number for either the public or the private funding.

All I can say, however, is that researchers are looking forward to receiving the federal funds, because any time where you just have private companies funding something, and then you add federal money, the federal money is bound to be much more than what the private companies are spending. Most medical breakthroughs in this country come as the result of federal funding pouring in to give manpower and energy to the research.

PHILLIPS: Kelly, any scoop? Do you want to add to that as you've been working your sources?

WALLACE: No, but, you know, it is a good question, because a lot of people have said, Well, isn't there already private funding of this research? So what's the big importance of the federal funding? And just as Elizabeth noted, number one, it would give momentum, many scientists saying that you really do need that federal backing to give momentum and to speed up the research to lead to breakthroughs in the fight against these diseases.

But number two, very important to have some federal oversight, to have some guidelines and regulations. So most believing that's why it's important to have the federal government involved. And as we know, the president naming a council that will oversee this research and also come up with guidelines and regulations for how it should be carried out.

PHILLIPS: Elizabeth, here's a question for you. Dale Friesen wants to know, "What is the main limiting factor at this time which impedes the private sector from participating in this research? I would think that if and when stem cell therapy pans out, it will be attractive to the market."

COHEN: You know, there's not necessarily an impedance right now. I mean, private funding has been going on since 1998, when the first two scientists made stem cells in the lab, so it's been going on pretty much at a steady pace since 1998. I mean, just think, three years ago there were no stem cell lines at all, now there are apparently at least 60 out there.

So the-- but as Kelly said, once you put federal money in there, it just-- it's just like a rocket ship taking off. There just is so much more federal money out there than private money.

BUCKLEY: Kelly, you want to join in there with anything?

WALLACE: Well, you know, the one other thing to add, which we-- you know, as we don't know, we don't have sort of a dollar figure for exactly what the president is supporting, but you also do, of course, have lawmakers, Frank, Kyra, that will be hitting the Congress this fall who-- some who very much would like to see broader embryonic stem cell research, and they would like to, of course, increase some federal funding.

So definitely look for this not to be the last word for lawmakers to definitely try to do what they can in the House and Senate to expand, number one, the actual research that is done, and number two, the amount of money that is going behind this effort.

BUCKLEY: Listen, Kelly, while we got you on there talking about sort of the political context of this, we'll go to J.S. Conover's e- mail here, and it's-- it may be more of a political statement. But he's-- J.S. says, "Do you think pro-life parents would reject a cure for their child if it had been developed from a stem cell?"

WALLACE: You know, this is obviously-- this situation-- this issue is, you know, passionate feelings on both sides. One thing that's interesting, Frank, Kyra, is that yesterday, Karen Hughes, the president's senior adviser, talking about how really there's such a divergence of opinion here, how there's some people who support abortion rights who actually might be against embryonic stem cell research, and how there are some people who are against abortion rights, people like Republican Senator Orrin Hatch, who is very much supportive of this research. So it is one of those issues which sort of crosses those traditional lines, tremendous divergence of opinion. And again, the president feeling like he is doing what he can to get some of this research going without crossing what this White House continues to say that moral line, although as we know, some religious conservatives definitely think the president has crossed the line even by allowing research on stem cells that have already been obtained from destroyed human embryos.

PHILLIPS: Bob on the phone from Virginia. Go ahead, Bob. What's your question?

CALLER: Good morning, Kyra and Frank. My question is for either Elizabeth or Kelly. Why are the staunch opponents of this stem cell research so against it, number one? And do they feel that people need to continue to suffer rather than find a cure for disease? I mean, this is extremely exciting research that's going to take place, and it seems to me that the staunch opponents, you know, want to continue to see people suffer. I do not understand this.

PHILLIPS: I'll take that one, or...

WALLACE: Go ahead, Elizabeth...

PHILLIPS: Go ahead, OK.

WALLACE: ... I'll go after you.

COHEN: You know, I think what this is all about is what you think an embryo is. There are 100,000 embryos sitting in fertility labs. And I talked to parents who have embryos in those labs, and some parents say, You know what? I think of that-- I don't think of that as a human being. I just think of that as tissue, and I want that go to go research.

But other people really, truly feel in their hearts that that is a person, and that person should be given the chance to come to life by being implanted into someone's uterus. They really don't feel like it should go to research.

Again, for them it would be the equivalent-- you wouldn't kill a human being in order to do research on them, you wouldn't kill me in order to do research on me. But-- and they feel that an embryo is a person just like all of us.

WALLACE: And I would just add to that, Elizabeth, exactly, A, it's a question of, Do you believe this represents a human life? Obviously staunch opponents to this research do believe that it does represent a human life. There also is a concern about sort of this becoming sort of the first step and leading into even more dangerous areas, according to these opponents, such as the cloning of human embryos for this research, such as creating human embryos for this research.

Obviously we heard President Bush say he's against both of those things. But some of these opponents say if you start doing this, well, it's never going to end.

And we should point out that many of the opponents of embryonic stem cell research do believe you can use adult stem cell tissue from adults and from animals, and that that can be used to fight diseases, although many scientists, as Elizabeth certainly knows best, think that the stem cells from human embryos really are the best to use for this research.

BUCKLEY: Kelly, another e-mail that seems directed at you. "If Bush's claim of 60 cell lines don't materialize, which is a serious possibility, what is his political future in this debate?" That from Tapas, of Kenner, Louisiana.

WALLACE: Well, that is really touching on a key, key issue right now, because there's been a lot of criticism of this White House saying that there are at least 60 existing stem cell lines right now. Many scientists believing that there were just about a dozen, if that, just a few months ago. So, A, there's a question about where are these stem lines. Only about 30 or so are actually in labs in the United States. The rest are apparently, according to the White House, outside the country in various other countries.

Many are also privately held, so there's a lot of question. The administration feels that it will be able to get its hands on these stem cell lines. But again, a big question down the road will be that if all these stem cell lines don't materialize or if all can't be used, and if scientists start really saying, We need much, much more, there will be political pressure on the administration to do more, and certainly you'll see lawmakers in the U.S. Congress trying to take legislative action if that definitely happens down the road.

PHILLIPS: Elizabeth, final word?

COHEN: I think this is so interesting. You know, the caller before this last one was obviously enraged. How could people not want these embryos to go to research? All of this comes down to, what do you think an embryo is? It's the size of a dot on an I, and there are some people who feel that that's a human life, you would never kill a real grownup human being to do research on it, why would you kill what they consider an embryonic human being?

And other people just don't feel that way. They feel that it's tissue, and that if it can be used to advance science, that's what they want to do with it.

PHILLIPS: Well, no doubt it'll be a debate we will continue to cover. Elizabeth Cohen and Kelly Wallace, thank you both so much.

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